Noted scholars to join faculty at School of Law this fall
Four new professors – nationally distinguished in the fields of constitutional interpretation, religion and the law, and the Holocaust and the law – will join the faculty of the University of St. Thomas School of Law this fall, according to School of Law Dean Thomas Mengler.
Michael Stokes Paulsen currently is the McKnight Presidential Professor of Law and Public Policy, Briggs and Morgan Professor of Law, and associate dean for research and scholarship at the University of Minnesota Law School. He was a visiting professor at St. Thomas during the 2003-2004 school year.
Paulsen is among the nation’s leading scholars of constitutional interpretation; his publications include articles in the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Chicago Law Review, NYU Law Review, Texas Law Review, California Law Review, and the Georgetown Law Journal, among many others.
Paulsen received his bachelor’s degree with distinction from Northwestern University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received a master’s in religion from Yale Divinity School and a law degree from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and received the Harlan Fiske Stone Prize for appellate advocacy. After graduation from law school, he joined the Department of Justice in the Criminal Division Honors Program, and also has served as staff counsel for the Center for Law and Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., and as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel. At St. Thomas, Paulsen will teach constitutional law and civil procedure.
Susan Stabile currently is the Dean George W. Matheson Professor of Law at St. John’s University Law School and senior fellow of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society. She is among the nation’s leading scholars on pensions and employee benefits, and on the intersection of Catholic social thought and the law.
She is the co-author of the leading casebook, Pension and Employee Benefit Law (Foundation Press) and the treatise “ERISA Litigation” (BNA). Her publications include articles in the NYU Law Review, Yale Journal on Regulation, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Notre Dame Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, the Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, and the Journal of Catholic Social Thought, among many others.
Stabile received her bachelor’s from Georgetown University and her law degree from New York University School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the NYU Law Review. After graduation from law school, she was associated in New York and Hong Kong with the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton, where she spent her early years practicing corporate and securities law and later specialized in employee benefits and executive compensation matters. At St. Thomas, Stabile will teach employee benefits, employment law, and administrative law.
Joel Nichols currently is an associate professor and Rick J. Caruso Research Fellow in Law at Pepperdine Law School. His scholarship has focused on the intersection of theology and religion as they relate to constitutional law, human rights, legal history, and family law.
His articles have appeared in NYU Law Review, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Journal of Church and State, Emory International Law Review, and Emory Law Journal, among others. He is the director of an ongoing project exploring the concept of “multitiered marriage,” and he will edit a forthcoming book on the subject featuring contributors such as Brian Bix, Margaret Brinig, Rick Garnett, Linda McClain, Stephen Presser, John Witte, and Robin Wilson.
Nichols received his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Abilene Christian University, and his J.D. degree with highest honors from Emory University Law School, where he was articles editor of the Emory Law Journal. He also earned a master of divinity degree from Emory’s Candler School of Theology, where he received the Award for Academic Excellence.
Nichols clerked for Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was associated with the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. At St. Thomas, Nichols will teach contracts, family law, and human rights.
Robert Kahn currently is assistant professor of legal writing at Brooklyn Law School. His scholarship has focused on the law of the Holocaust, and his book, Holocaust Denial and the Law: A Comparative Study, was published by Palgrave-MacMillan. He received his B.A. from Columbia University, his J.D. from NYU Law School, and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He practiced law as a staff attorney with Harlem Legal Services. At St. Thomas, Kahn will teach lawyering skills.
